Oooops...

Okay, so, this one time I started a blog and then didn't update it for almost a month even though [or maybe because] about a billion different things happened in that month.

I meant to, I really did. I'm just a little bit of a slacker. Or a lot of a slacker, I don't know. What's a word that means something a bit worse than slacker? Who knows.

...I thought about writing a bunch of posts and just changing the date back, pretending that I've been updating this entire time. According to Kaeli this is "lame". FINE THEN, KAELI.

Anyway, I will try to get you all up to speed with as much detail as I feel like putting in.

ONWARD.

The visa

Well, the visa drama is no more. Mere days after sending enough information that even the dumbest of identity thieves would have a field day, I got a lovely e-mail that said my visa was issued. I read it about 5 times, of course. You know, just in case the word 'not' magically found a place before 'issued'. A few days after that, so very quickly if you take into consideration how much effort went into gathering all the information for the thing, I had my passports back in my possession. The visa's on page eighteen. I'm not sure why.

You know what I didn't get back? My proof of funds that had my bank account information on it. I'm going to assume they shredded that, or locked it somewhere. Noooot that they're going to get much from me if they do decide to steal my identity.

The family trip

The weekend I was supposed to book my flight, I took a mini-family vacation to New Minas. They claim to be both "the soccer capital of Nova Scotia" and "the shopping capital of the valley". Let me assure you that they manage to suck hard at both of these labels. The soccer capital label is especially hilarious - mostly in a sad way. This year was the last year for their soccer tournament thing. My little brother's team won the tournament, played beautifully, etc. Too bad about the crappy hotel.

Picture it, if you please. A pale pink wall paper, the thick, textured kind that looks a bit like tweed. Everything in these rooms was wallpapered. There were some things on the wall that looked like they had been removed, wallpapered, and stuck back on. What were these mystery wall hangings, originally? I don't know, let's ask the 80's. The carpet was blue. The curtains were green and flower-y. Outlets by the ceiling, random ceiling hooks with nothing hanging on them. It was hilarious. Alas, no photos. I forgot my camera and once my mother found out I intended to steal photos from her camera to mock the place over Facebook, she refused to let me borrow her camera.

The worst part of the hotel was the crappy Internet. It didn't work. At all. So, I didn't get to book my flight and I ended up losing the one I wanted.

The flight

I originally, super badly, wanted this one flight that meant I could spend a whole day in Iceland. Too bad everyone else wanted it, too. Now I get to spend 5.5 hours in JFK, an hour in Iceland, and it, literally, takes me 24 hours to get from Halifax to London. This is going to be fannnnnntastic. On the huge, huge plus side, the flight was beyond cheap. Seriously, I recommend Icelandair's prices. I'll let you know about the rest of them, later.

The going away parties

Get their own post. Later. Sometime.


There you go, everyone. All up to date!

<3 Jade

Visa, please?

I'm fiiiiiiinally making some progress on the whole 'pack up my life and move across the ocean' thing. I know, I know, it's just a teeny, tiny bit late when I want to leave in a month. Except, as you will soon read, not at all, folks!

Yesterday I made my way downtown Halifax to a little, giant, building called SomethingorotherIwasn'tpayingattention. The point of the journey was to register my finger prints for my visa. Yeah, they're hardcore in the UK. It even says on the website that if you refuse to give your finger prints you make your application invalid. My question is, what happens if you don't have fingers to print? Of course, as with all government websites, this information was not readily available. Okay, maybe it was, but come on, I have enough trouble trying to find the information I need. I'm not going looking for a headache when I have all eight fingers and two thumbs.

Anyway, I found myself surrounded by students, all of whom are set to start university in the fall. AND they're just getting their student visas set now! I'm beyond relieved to know I'm not the only person who got side lined by the whole, 'By the way we need your fingerprints but we only set up the east coast finger printing clinic once a month. SORRY.'

The whole process took about fifteen minutes. First, a woman goes through your application and asks you a few questions. She wanted to see my photos, and I definitely wanted to refuse. My photos are terrible. If I could think of a word that meant 'more than terrible' right now, I would use that. I look like a shiny, fat troll. I made her promise not to laugh before I dug the photo out, promising her that I look much prettier and more human-like in person. I thought she was going to stop breathing from laughing so hard at my photo explanations, but she managed to calm herself down long enough to tell me that no one's going to care how bad the photo is. Uhm, I am going to care when I can't use it to make people serve me alcohol. "Hey, if you're going to make a fake ID at least get a photo of a human!" is pretty much what I expect every bartender in the UK to tell me. Oh, and I'll care even more if it gets me turned away at customs. "Sorry, no troll people allowed. If you were a gnome or an elf, maybe, but no trolls."

Anyway, I made it past the woman no problem. On to the man with the English accent! He turned on a camera and asked me some questions. I congratulated him on managing to get my last name right. It's not a hard name to say, unless you're from my Scot-descended town. Then you're just asking too much because the first syllable isn't 'Mac'. This comment, as it usually does, turned into a conversation about how people mess up the easiest of names. His last name rhymed with 'Matter' but most people insisted it was pronounced 'Mater'. He asked me if I came from a French community. "Oh no, it's Scottish," I replied, and he gave me a sympathetic smile. "Ah yes, they'd have trouble for sure. With their rolling r's or whatever it is they do there." Fantastic! Beyond fantastic! Even if he was just being sarcastic, an English guy even pretending that he has no clue about the Scottish accent is hilarious.

The guy turned out to be pretty nice. He told me I should have applied for an ancestry visa, since my grandparents were born there. I told him I was having trouble getting the documents together for an ancestry visa, but he told me I should have an easier time getting what I needed once I was there. "Just apply for that one the next time, and then you can stay as long as you want!" He also insisted it was easier than the government website made it out to be. If you go through the male line you don't have to produce marriage certificates and stuff. Well, that certainly would have been nice to know before I submitted my Tier 5 application. SEE: everything I said above about government websites.

Oh well, with this one I'll be able to see if I like living in the UK before I go through the trouble/cash of getting an ancestry visa. ALSO, it's processed really fast. I should know whether or not they're going to let me stay on their island in about 15 days! Yay!

<3 Jade